A Simple Touch
by kinmoku2
Summary: Elsa is a new mother, but still has lingering fears about hurting her child with a touch. Guess it's Auntie Anna to the rescue. Short drabble, but please read, review, favorite, and alert if you like it.


A Simple Touch

"Anna," Elsa called. Her voice was synthetically light in an attempt not to betray the anxiety building in her chest—a façade her lively sister could see through easily despite not being physically in the room with the Ice Queen.

"Don't worry, little one, Aunty Anna will be here soon," Elsa cooed softly to the newborn fussing beneath her gaze. His face was scrunched up unhappily, while his tiny lungs begged in loud wails for the bottle of milk usually delivered to him at this time. Elsa wanted to console him, but the notion, the very idea of touching him—her baby—seemed verboten. How the child had even survived in her icy womb was still a mystery to the Queen, but she tried not to over think it. Instead, Elsa opted to hover a gloved hand above her child's soft platinum tufts. As though suddenly aware of her presence, the baby's verdant eyes flicked open and held his mother's affectionate blue orbs with curiosity; his cries momentarily dissipated into silence.

An abrupt flood of warmth filled the Queen's body at this. His eyes so much like his aunt's never ceased to thaw the ever-creeping frost in her heart. "I love you, Erik," she whispered softly and lightly nudged the snowflake mobile hanging above the crib. It started to sway, singing a nearly inaudible lullaby as the snowflakes clinked against one another.

"You rang?" Anna's bright soprano greeted; she poked her head around the doorframe of the nursery.

A timid smile lifted each corner of Elsa's lips. "I did. Erik is hungry, and I'm afraid I'll spoil the milk." She doesn't mention the real reason behind her request, but the Queen doesn't need to. Anna can see through her guise without even having to lift the veil.

"Elsa," Anna began to chide, "You've had control of your powers for years now. You won't hurt—"

Elsa spun sharply and eyed the red head with a fragile glower. "Then why is _he _dead?" The words were a soft, audible hiss and seemed to float from the Queen's regal lips unnaturally.

"That was an accident, Elsa," Anna protested. The red head extended a hand towards her sister, but Elsa jerked away and clenched a clump of platinum hair in her fist.

Elsa spoke with a dark tinge in her voice. "And it won't happen again, which is why…" The Queen swallowed and the words from her plum colored lips broke. "Anna, please. I know it may seem silly to you, but I just…can't touch him." _Not Yet. _That's what she wanted to say, but the words refused to unfurl from her lips. To make such a promise and end up breaking it? Elsa couldn't bear the thought.

Feet padding across the carpet, Anna came up beside the crib and leaned down toward the baby with a goofy grin. "Hey, Erik. It's your Auntie Anna." Erik made gurgling sounds and kicked his tiny feet in response. Anna giggled and swooped the baby up into her arms before swaying lightly—as if dancing. "My, my, Prince Erik, you are certainly light on your feet."

"Anna," Elsa chided with one hand muffling the laughter behind her lips, "Be careful with him."

Anna paused and looked down her nephew with false incredulity. "Be careful? Erik, can you believe that lady?" Erik responded with an indignant gurgle. "I know, I know. That Mommy of yours…" Anna trailed off for a moment before briefly touching her nose to the infant's and lifting him into the air so that one hand was placed firmly under his belly and the other rested on the baby's back. "I can't believe it, especially since you're…" Anna began to charge slowly toward her sister, "SUPER BABY! _WHOOSH_!"

"Anna, you really should-" Elsa protested; but her voice trembled with bubbling laughter.

"What _are_ you doing, Gingerbread-head?" a new, masculine voice sounded from the door of the nursery. His eyebrows were arched in amusement.

Pausing, Anna turned slowly towards her blond husband; her lips were set in an overdramatic pout. "Don't sound so judgmental, Reindeer….head."

"Creative," the blond man retorted with a quirk of the lips.

Anna snorted, readjusting her nephew so that he now sat comfortably on her hip. "And what? Now you've become some sort of nick-naming guru?"

"Didn't you know? It's my new occupation." Kristoff's sarcasm was palpable.

"So, ice isn't your life anymore, huh? Guess we'll have to rescind that title of yours Ice master of Arendelle."

"Rescind?"

"Yes, rescind. What? Can't a princess spruce up her vocabulary with a fancy word or two?"

"A princess, yes," Kristoff said teasingly, "you? Not so much."

Anna puffed out her cheeks in annoyance before deciding to poke a well-manicured finger at her husband's broad chest. "I'd watch it, if I were you, ice boy. I have the key to the bedroom. I can lock you out tonight."

Kristoff chuckled and, under his breath, muttered. "Or yourself like last time."

Releasing a strangled breath, Anna turned to her sister and gently pushed Erick back into her arms. "Excuse me."

"Anna, wait!" Elsa protested, "You can't just leave me here…alone. I…I need help."

This stops the red head; slowly she turns on her heel, a comforting smile molding onto her taut lips. "You're his mother, Elsa. I know you're scared of hurting him, but you won't. I would never leave you alone if I thought otherwise."

Elsa looked down at her son, now contently asleep while cradled in her arms. No snowflakes crept along his skin and the usual flush in his tiny cheeks remain, completely untouched by her icy hands. "M-Maybe you're right, but Anna…"

"You know where to find me when something _doesn't_ go wrong."

Anna's footsteps begin to fade down the hallway as her voice raises shrilly after the mountain man that was her husband.

Elsa's lips finally reflect the smile on her sister's face, and she dares to plant a kiss upon Erik's forehead. "Thank you, Anna."


End file.
